Glendale’s only comic shop delivers the goods on Free Comic Book Day
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Like Bruce Banner’s transformation into the Hulk, the crowds — and comics — attracted by Free Comic Book Day every year keep on growing.
This was how Howard Chen — owner of Legacy Comics and Cards, Glendale’s only comic book shop — described Saturday’s annual celebration of the industry, where young and adult readers could take home a slew of free comics and hopefully make some in-store purchases.
Chen’s small downtown shop was handing out as many as 23 free comics per customer who waited in line well before doors opened at 10 a.m.
“Saturday was the best Free Comic Book Day we’ve ever had. It was the busiest. We gave away the most books this year — around 8,000 books total,” said Chen, whose store has been in business since 1990.
Customers were funneled into the 2,300-square-foot shop in small groups through the side “game/manga room,” where waiting for them in the front end of the store were tables stacked with free comics from major and small publishers such as DC, Marvel and Image.
Some comics reintroduce popular characters and story lines to lapsed readers, others tell original tales, and at least one made national headlines — but all served to lure as many customers as possible through the door with hopes that many will return.
While some stores have stopped participating in Free Comic Book Day — saying that buying books from distributors, only to give them away for free with no promise of return customers made them lose money — Chen continues to tout the merits of the pseudo-holiday and what it does for his business.
“I would guesstimate that of all the people who pick up the free comic books, 30% left the store right after and the other 70% would stay and browse,” Chen said. “You get a lot of new faces definitely, and this year, because of a lot of the growth [in] Glendale ... I think that helped.”
Chen is at least counting on the exposure to let people know that his store exists, he said.
Diamond Comics Distributors, the world’s leading English-language comic book distributor, provides a list of “gold” publishers and participation in Free Comic Book Day requires the store order a minimum quantity from the list — about 25 copies from each title — to be officially recognized as a participant.
Legacy Comics carried every free title made available by Diamond, even those not on the “gold” list, just in case somebody asks for them, Chen said.
Chen also made sure that customers who were there for the promotional goodies could peruse the 18 long boxes filled with heavily discounted comics and trade paperbacks before they were handed their Free Comic Book Day bag as a way to help clear old inventory.
“Free Comic Book Day is nothing but great exposure, and I just love that we can do something to give back to all the great customers that we have,” Chen said.
Twitter: @JeffLanda
